Big Brother 18 House of Mirrors: Mateship

By Justin Mooney, August 04, 2016

James accidentally says too much to Da'Vonne, and Bridgette's Big Brother life without Frank

Déjà Vu

Nicole, Corey, Paul, and James are lounging in the Safari room. They are discussing the logistics of Thursday’s vote: Who knows that Day is going home? Do Michelle and Zakiyah? How should we play it off to them?

Da’vonne opens up the door to Safari, clocks the people talking in the room, and wordlessly shuts the door. “[S]he always makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong,” says Nicole.

“We are. . . . We’re talking about evicting her,” replies James.

But what should they tell Day they were discussing? Paul proposes they say that they were talking to the live feeders. James is not receptive: “She ain’t going to believe that. She’s smarter than that.” Nicole then suggests that their topic of conversation was Double Eviction possibilities. “That’s pretty much what I was going to say,” says James in agreement.

You know what’s about to happen, right? Remarkably enough, it isn’t the first time this transpired this year.

Let’s go back in time to Bridgette’s week three HOH. If you remember, Tiffany, Paul, and Bronte were on the block. You with me? OK, so at the time of the incident in question, Tiffany was slated to go home. Tiffany, however, was under the impression that Bronte was being evicted. She was under this impression until Michelle told her that she would nominate Bridgette and Bronte next week.

Wait, what? “Isn’t Bronte gonna be gone?” lasers Tiffany, alarmed.

“Oh yeah, forgot about that,” says a three sheets to the wind Meech.

And so here we are again as Da’Vonne opens the Safari room door. This time she opts to join the party. They ask her about Double Eviction. She then turns it around and asks them what they were thinking.

Crickets.

James finally ventures to say that he would put up B and V. Day replies that B is supposed to go home this week. Then, in a chorus of buffoonery, everyone pretends like they don’t know what B corresponds to: “Who’s B?” asks Paul. “What?” says James. “Who’s B?” echoes Corey. “B?” says Paul.

“That’s Bridgette, right?” says Da’Vonne.

James nervously replies “for the Double, we’re gettin’ her—I thought we were taking her out this week.”

Seriously? You guys just prepared for this! At least Meech was intoxicated; y’all have no excuse.

“So glad I walked in on that conversation. People be tryin’ it.”—Da’Vonne

Mateship

I thought I had mentally prepared myself for Frank’s eviction, but it was even worse than my dreary prognostication. Seeing Bridgette so isolated and alone eviscerated me. I lied in my bed and mournfully sang myself to sleep with Bridgette’s song:

I miss my ma

I miss my pa

I miss by boo

And my sister too

I miss all of you

And Frank I miss you too

I hate the lies

I hate the ruse

I hate the drama

The bullshit too

I hate all of you

I fucking hate all of you

I am confused

I fell like two

And Frank’s the only one I trust he’s my big dude

I think he’s going home

I feel very alone

What am I to do?

What am I to do?

The beginning is always the worst. Fortunately, the fog is lifting. Most of the house is sympathetic to Bridgette’s plight. The guys in particular have warmed up to her. She’s tops in their book: She bakes, she’s neat, she cleans, she’s sweet, she’s fun to talk to, and her skin is immaculate.

Even Natalie, who has distanced herself from Bridgette after the Bronte eviction, has reconnected with her Spy Girl sister.

Bridgette: “I watch BuzzFeed a lot. Do you watch BuzzFeed videos?”

Natalie: “Um, I think I have. Is it on internet?”

All this time I thought I wanted Natalie to be evicted so James could get his head in the game, but, actually, I want the opposite. I want to Natalie to survive that showmance. As it turns out, I miss her too. I miss, dare I say, Girl Talk.

I realized this as Natalie and Bridgette plotted a revenge prank on James while he was sick in bed. They marinated his grungy Crocs in a herbal concoction and threw them in the freezer. Much giggling took place, including from us at House of Mirrors. Natalie then went on to explicate her theory about how shaving makes your hair grown in thicker. Bridgette tells her it doesn’t make sense, to which Natalie replies, “Well whatever. I don’t know the science behind it, but these scientists are trying to prove wrong and they’re not—they’re not right.”

But alas, Natalie is more loyal to her man, even at the expense of Spunky Spy. Fearing that Bridgette may still harbor resentment toward James for his actions as HOH—a feeling Natalie intuited from a remark Bridgette made about their current Saran Wrap shortage following a James prank[1]—Natalie hints to James that it might be in their best interest to vote out Bridgette. It's actually James that has to convince Natalie to keep Bridgette!

So I guess sisterhood is out. I'm going to go cry again.

[1] I always sided with Victor in his prank dispute with James. Hiding in odd little nooks and crannies to scare people is good fun. But I'm super neurotic about wasting food (which, in James's case, had the two-pronged effect of galvanizing an ant infestation stretching as far as the beds) and non-biodegradable substances on such silly little nonsense.